Fight Fake News? Rather improve Media Diversity and Transparency

Written by Heritiana Ranaivoson, Luciano Morganti, imec-SMIT-Vrije Universiteit Brussel


Fake News getting increasing attention

Fake news seems to be all over the place now. While there have always been rumours and unverified information circulating through word of mouth or through media, the term itself gained in popularity due to the tone of the debate during the US presidential election in 2016 and in the debates preceding the so-called Brexit referendum. More recently, Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of benefiting from an undemocratic and criminal industry of fake news and lies which led to his election as Brazil’ president-elect. In contrast to previous examples where Facebook had been the main focus of accusations, in Brazil, it is WhatsApp (owned by Facebook!) which is at the centre of accusations.

 

As a result, laws against fake news have been discussed in several European Union countries, notably in France and Germany, and the topic is highly debated also amongst European Institutions.

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European Elections, Media and Disinformation: a tricky rebus to solve! The intake from EuroPCom 2018

Written by Luciano Morganti & Heritiana Ranaivoson

EuroPCom 2018

 

On the 8th and 9th of November 2018, the 9th edition of EuroPCom, the European Public Communication Conference, was held at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels. This year the conference scored a record figure of 1,714 registrations. Also this was the first gender-balanced EuroPCom event to date! But this year EuroPCom established also other records with a very young audience (41% of participants were under 30 years old), 15% of participants coming from academia, and 66% female participants. As stated last year, EuroPCom is now the de facto annual “to be” event for communication managers and experts from local, regional, national and European authorities.

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Robot Journalism – We should not be afraid

Robot journalism or automation is becoming an important part of news production. It speeds up news production and generates a vast amount of content in a matter of sector to be distributed and consumed in print and online. However, we know little about how news automation work and its implication on ethics and quality of journalism, as well as the impact on human journalists.

These questions were explored in a workshop organized by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) within the framework of the Media Road project on 5 June in Lisbon, Portugal. The workshop was attended by around 40 participants from across Europe, including journalists, academics, media and journalists’ representatives.

Experts on robot journalism, journalists, developers, media managers and academics participated in the three panels discussion focusing on: the production and application of robot journalism, the impact on the working conditions of journalists and the ethical issues surrounding robot journalism.

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First MediaRoad conference looks at media innovation

The first thematic MediaRoad event was organized on 2 March 2018 in Geneva as part of the EBU Big Data Week. The conference focused on how the media sector could take advantage of the latest innovations. The conference was organized by the EPFL, a major European research institution, with the full support of the MediaRoad project, a Horizon 2020-funded initiative to create a European media ecosystem for innovation.

The “Media Innovation in the age of AI, social media and fake news” conference gathered representatives of academia, research, broadcasters, and business who looked at the use of data and artificial intelligence for media content,

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MediaRoad answers European Commission Public Consultation on Fake News and Online Disinformation

Words by Luciano Morganti and Heritiana Ranaivoson

On 23 February, the MediaRoad consortium contributed to the Public Consultation on Fake News and Online Disinformation launched by the European Commission. The MediaRoad’s joint position builds upon different point of views of its diverse members representing European media organisation, researchers, creative and cultural industries and technology experts and entrepreneurs who have highlighted the role of quality journalism and trusted content to counteract disinformation and information disorder.

The consultation mainly aimed at:

  1. gathering ideas and insights about the definition of fake information and their online dissemination
  2. assessing measures already taken by platforms, news media companies, and civil society organisations to counter the spread of fake information online
  3. scoping for future actions to strengthen quality information and prevent the spread of disinformation online.

Read more to see the key points raised by the MediaRoad consortium in its response to the consultation.

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The challenges of fake news and the role of public service broadcasters in communicating Europe: the intake from EuroPCom 2017

Written by Luciano Morganti & Heritiana Ranaivoson

EuroPCom 2017

 

On the 9th and 10th of November 2017, the 8th edition of EuroPCom, the European Public Communication Conference, was held at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels. More than 1000 communication professionals attended the conference which has become, few years since its inception, the ‘must-attend’ annual event for communication managers and experts from local, regional, national and European authorities, as well as, in the most recent editions, academics, researchers and practitioners in the broad field of public and institutional communications.

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Media Innovation in the age of AI, social media and fake news

Over the last years, the Media industry has gone through intense disruptions and very profound structural changes. Decades ago, consuming audiovisual services meant tuning to our traditional public and private broadcast TV and radio services. Then came the digitalization of the content, and broadband. As a major shift in the way media content was offered to the end users, the broadcast channels lost their de-facto exclusivity. Media services from Internet players and ISP popped up and started eating a growing part of the media business cake. Content became also on-demand. Finally came the Mobile and Social Network revolutions. Shorter content became popular and Social Networks brought the ultimate paradigm shift: the media content was no longer only “owned” by the media players, it was also being generated by the end users themselves. With the potential to be viewed by audiences sometimes larger than the media players.

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Fake news affects all of us – the debate should reflect all voices

Written by Noel Curran, this opinion piece originally appeared on Euractive on 6 December 2017.

We have all had our fill of references to ‘fake news’ – to the point that we are no longer sure what it means. However, that should not blind us to the fact that significant issues are at stake in the digital world.

Regulators, media organisations, politicians, journalists and the public have allowed the digital revolution, with all its opportunities, to turn into ‘digital dominance’ by a handful of large internet players. This has allowed for a space where fake news can freely flourish.

News media organisations are now spending a lot of money, at a difficult time, fact-checking information on platforms that dwarf them in scale, income and resources. Does the belated conversion of these platforms into third party fact- checking tools go far enough given the extraordinary incomes they generate?

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